Expert insights. Personalized for you.
Techstars co-founder Brad Feld and Techstars mentor Jason Mendelson—both renowned venture capitalists, partners at the Foundry Group, and authors of Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist —are again giving their FREE online course Venture Deals. MORE
When I was a Y Combinator partner, I noticed that more and more of the batches were companies started by international founders. International founders typically have some combination of these three reasons: a) Access to capital The number one answer is access to capital. MORE
Just the immediate priorities seem to take up more than one person’s potential working hours—so it’s no surprise that when it comes to something like social media, many founders have trouble making it a priority. The consequences of failing to position a founder’s profile aren’t always obvious—and it’s usually all about missed opportunities. Some founders get more press, get speaking opportunities or have an easier time fundraising thanks to leads that started with social media. MORE
He shares his experiences moonlighting as an intern at HigherMe (YC W15), playing soccer with YC founders & partners, and what drove him to start a YC company — even after being rejected. I remember John [founder of Boosted] came by and let us try out new prototypes of his board. MORE
All Founders 500 Accelerator 500 startups accelerator Accelerator accelerator program accelerators founders start up accelerator startup accelerator startup foundersGuest Post: Rishika Jhamb is the Marketing Lead at Alluva. MORE
We’re hosting group office hours and a happy hour for female founders on Friday, July 26 at the YC office in Mountain View, California. These discussions will be led by a YC partner and you’ll be joined by founders from 4-5 other companies. Female Founders YC News FeatureIf you’re in the early stages of building a company we’d love to meet you — anyone from idea stage through Series A is welcome to join. MORE
201 It was a company whose product I believed in and whose founder I liked, but a firm lobbed in a term sheet at a price 33% higher than what I had offered using a very light agreement meant for a much earlier stage company. Then, I read about the idiotic comments made by a co-founder of Rap Genius. Founders. Founders. They got that way due in large part to a very public founder friendly stance. I treat all my founders equally. MORE
Yesterday, I met with a founder with an interesting model who was raising $400k to bring the finishing touches to her product to make it customer-ready. In fact, the only founder I've ever seen completely run the table for a multi-million dollar seed round based off of a Powerpoint is Chantel Waterbury of chloe + isabel. This blog post is not about debating if "enough" diverse founders get funding--whatever that might mean. MORE
All Founders International global launch international founders singapore singapore founders Southeast Asia southeast asia startups southeast asia venture capitalWhile people may think of Singapore as a top startup city, what they may not realize is that this city-state potentially has quite a bit more to offer as a local hub when looking to scale throughout the region. MORE
You get to have interesting conversations with founders and review business plans and then see how these businesses evolve over the years. " Revenue doesn't pay your bills, GM does — @msuster 2/ Founders obsess with revenue as a vanity metric. MORE
Each week, I receive dozens of updates from startups—everything from founders I’ve just chatted with briefly, to founders I’ve mentored, to companies that have asked GAN Ventures for funding. GAN Startups founder wellness founders investing startups updates MORE
In reality, so-called “Founder’s” shares are simply common stock, issued at the time of startup incorporation, for a very low price, and normally allocated to the multiple initial players commensurate with their investment or role. Invested Interests entrepreneur founders stock startup MORE
When GAN Ventures considers whether to invest in a startup, we look for four primary things: Authentic founders: Founders that know their own strengths and weaknesses and aren’t afraid to ask for help. Passionate founders: Founders that joyfully know more about their market than most people would think is normal to know about anything. Authentic founders communicate what’s going on with themselves. MORE
In this program, founders are connected to the CIOs of the top banks, brokerages, and insurance companies in NYC as they work on their products and pitches. And then there is the newest one, the Transit Tech Accelerator , where founders who are building transit companies are connected to the leading transit systems in the NY Metro area while they work on their products and pitches. NYC’s Partnership runs some outstanding accelerator programs. MORE
James and Andrew [the co-founders of Firebase] really treated me like a peer. When I started, it was just me and the founders and they were going through the S11 batch. One of the founders put a description on HackerNews and then tweeted it. MORE
Leading Student Entrepreneurs to Pitch and Meet Founder Mentors at 3rd Annual Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars Convening. MORE
Ever wondered what a startup founder does after their company is acquired for billions of dollars ? Isaac Saldana, Co-founder of SendGrid—which was acquired by Twilio for $3 billion in an all-stock deal in October 2018—isn’t lounging on a beach. MORE
This blog started from a series of conversations I found myself having over and over again with founders and eventually decided I should just start writing them.It The founders of DropBox, Airbnb, Uber – you name it. Obsession. The drive to succeed at all costs. MORE
Doing so means getting a lot of things right, and one of the most critical is that founders receive the correct support while they’re in-program. Building a community of other founders they can work alongside, who really get what it’s like. MORE
The funny thing about stats is that you can basically come up with a stat to justify any argument or position--and the whole female founders in tech conversation has a ton of numbers that people put out there as various types of proof and justification, or blame. I tend not to back the type of founder who thinks that code and design alone breaks down all industry barriers--which means that the average age of the founders I''ve seeded has been around 33. MORE
We recently sat down with the founders of LA Fund, Lev Filiminov and Alex Balaban, to learn more about their inspiration for the. All Founders Growth Partnerships Programs bootcamp founders hospitality Startup Growth Startups MORE
Nowhere is the politics more difficult than with co-founders, which is why for years I’ve spoken publicly about “ the co-founder mythology.” ” Of course we all go into businesses expecting to be aligned with our co-founders but over time life changes. MORE
Oh, and make someone from your 25 person Moldova tech team your co-founder. Don't forget to tell all your founder friends about our ultra-pre-pre-seed program. It doesn't pay to look at it any other way--and I think too many founders focus on the investor as the problem versus their pitch or their company. Here are a few ways founders can improve their chances with an investor: 1) Make sure you actually have a viable startup idea, *before* you pitch. MORE
The Coveteur article featuring Andy and Bonobos encapsulated exactly how a founder worth writing about will act: ".He 4) Thank Andy Dunn for showing us the way to be one of the best storytelling founders ever. And it’s true: [FOUNDER] is wildly successful. The thing is, all [NAME WHAT'S MAYBE A BIT PLAYED OUT ABOUT YOUR COMPANY OR SECTOR] ribbing aside for a second, talking to [FOUNDER] about [COMPANY NAME] and how it revolutionized [YOUR SECTOR] is fascinating. MORE
Here’s the thing, though: We know that an uneven amount of dollars go to founders in major tech hubs—the Londons and San Franciscos of the world. And, three years into running our fund at GAN Ventures, with over 25 investments (almost exclusively in founders operating in cities like the ones I just mentioned), we’ve seen investment markups on a full third of our portfolio. Most founders in smaller cities are already leaders in their communities. (It’s MORE
A 2018 graduate of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and former participant in NYU’s Entrepreneurial Institute (Leslie eLab) LaunchPad program, Joshua is the founder of The Diversity Org. Joshua Pierce knows the impact one opportunity or one mentor can have on a young person’s trajectory. MORE
There are some founders who see predictions about the future as a kind of promise—and so they hesitate and get uncomfortable around the idea of insisting that X, Y, or Z will happen. It’s a more complete answer in the mind of an operationally focused founder. that same founder will give the most unequivocal, most confident “Yes!” Those founders tend to be terrific to work with on the operational side. MORE
There are studies that suggest that there are lots of perfectly fantastic female owned business that are undercapitalized because the founders aren''t seeking it--perhaps they believe the system won''t support it, perhaps it relates to perceptions of risk. Right this very moment, I''m in the process of leading investments in two companies where I had to convince a team with a female founder to take capital. Let''s get one thing straight. MORE
The U.S. spends about twice what other high-income nations do on health care, but with results that are often worse than those countries achieve at much lower cost. In 2009, in a national effort to improve quality and lower costs, the Federal government launched a huge incentive program to drive the adoption of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), spending an estimated $40 billion over the past decade to implement this data-gathering technology in hospitals across the country. MORE
As we tell our founders at 1000 Angels , the private investor network that connects startups with investors, time management is an important component of any business, but when it comes to launching a startup it is even more critical. Founder WisdomBy Michael Whitehouse. MORE
In almost every single investment I’ve ever made, I can think of a singular moment in my relationship with a founder that, no matter what came before or what might come after, defined our relationship. Often times, it came in a very vulnerable and down moment for the founder—perhaps they just lost out on a big opportunity, had someone from the team leave, or they’re running low on capital before sales have come around. MORE
As I said in this post , I am generally a “one share one vote proponent”, but I have supported founder control provisions in a few companies where I was or am on the board. The founder had a 10:1 supervoting provision and controlled a majority of the board seats. But I can only imagine that WeWork was running out of cash and needed funds from its existing investors and the founder had to cede all of that to keep the company afloat. MORE
To celebrate their success, we collaborated with Slidebean to host a Fireside Chat in New York City on October 10th featuring Caya, founder of Slidebean, and Steve Barsh, Managing Partner at Dreamit. Caya: 2x startup founder. MORE
If founder salaries are supposed to be no more than some set number, how does that work if a founder is a single mom with three kids and a mortgage. For example, if Katrina Lake, the founder of Stitch Fix, went off to start a new company, pretty much any investor would give her a blank check to do it. On the other hand, do you think that same number is the primary motivating factor for the black female founder, weather she, too, went to Harvard and can code or not. MORE
Announcements Founders Venture Capital Investing 500 startups accelerator 500 startups demo dayNo one would’ve envisioned me as a venture capitalist. I was raised in rural Wyoming, far from the high stakes and deep pockets of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. MORE
Felix Rodriguez is the founder and CEO of Back Office, a human-assisted AI platform and bookkeeping service for companies and consultants. I believe founders have superpowers. Founders Tips and Trends 500 Accelerator 500 startups accelerator 500 startups demo day Accelerator accelerator program founders seed accelerator start up accelerator startup accelerator startup founders MORE
I've heard a lot of VCs tell founders they need co-founders--and that they wouldn't look at a business at a very early stage without a co-founder. A lot of accelerators treat solo founders the same way--making it an implied requirement to participate. I don't think you can get into YC with this kind of "Godfather"-type co-founder as your partner if they're not going to be there day in and day out. but you do need a team. MORE
If you haven’t yet heard about Female Founder Office Hours it is an initiative you should be aware of whether you’re male, female or any other gender identify. Take Action You’ll see from the website that Female Founder Office Hours have several dates set. MORE
founder Related Topics GAN
FEBRUARY 11, 2020
Doing so means getting a lot of things right, and one of the most critical is that founders receive the correct support while they’re in-program. Building a community of other founders they can work alongside, who really get what it’s like.
A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC
SEPTEMBER 26, 2019
As I said in this post , I am generally a “one share one vote proponent”, but I have supported founder control provisions in a few companies where I was or am on the board. The founder had a 10:1 supervoting provision and controlled a majority of the board seats. But I can only imagine that WeWork was running out of cash and needed funds from its existing investors and the founder had to cede all of that to keep the company afloat.
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This is going to be BIG.
OCTOBER 22, 2018
In almost every single investment I’ve ever made, I can think of a singular moment in my relationship with a founder that, no matter what came before or what might come after, defined our relationship. Often times, it came in a very vulnerable and down moment for the founder—perhaps they just lost out on a big opportunity, had someone from the team leave, or they’re running low on capital before sales have come around.
GAN
OCTOBER 9, 2019
Here’s the thing, though: We know that an uneven amount of dollars go to founders in major tech hubs—the Londons and San Franciscos of the world. And, three years into running our fund at GAN Ventures, with over 25 investments (almost exclusively in founders operating in cities like the ones I just mentioned), we’ve seen investment markups on a full third of our portfolio. Most founders in smaller cities are already leaders in their communities. (It’s
GAN
MAY 22, 2019
When GAN Ventures considers whether to invest in a startup, we look for four primary things: Authentic founders: Founders that know their own strengths and weaknesses and aren’t afraid to ask for help. Passionate founders: Founders that joyfully know more about their market than most people would think is normal to know about anything. Authentic founders communicate what’s going on with themselves.
A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC
NOVEMBER 4, 2019
In this program, founders are connected to the CIOs of the top banks, brokerages, and insurance companies in NYC as they work on their products and pitches. And then there is the newest one, the Transit Tech Accelerator , where founders who are building transit companies are connected to the leading transit systems in the NY Metro area while they work on their products and pitches. NYC’s Partnership runs some outstanding accelerator programs.
|
This is going to be BIG.
JULY 8, 2019
Just the immediate priorities seem to take up more than one person’s potential working hours—so it’s no surprise that when it comes to something like social media, many founders have trouble making it a priority. The consequences of failing to position a founder’s profile aren’t always obvious—and it’s usually all about missed opportunities. Some founders get more press, get speaking opportunities or have an easier time fundraising thanks to leads that started with social media.
500
NOVEMBER 21, 2019
All Founders 500 Accelerator 500 startups accelerator Accelerator accelerator program accelerators founders start up accelerator startup accelerator startup foundersGuest Post: Rishika Jhamb is the Marketing Lead at Alluva.
TechStars
OCTOBER 28, 2019
Leading Student Entrepreneurs to Pitch and Meet Founder Mentors at 3rd Annual Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars Convening.
Both Sides of the Table
JULY 17, 2018
You get to have interesting conversations with founders and review business plans and then see how these businesses evolve over the years. " Revenue doesn't pay your bills, GM does — @msuster 2/ Founders obsess with revenue as a vanity metric.
Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 4, 2014
Nowhere is the politics more difficult than with co-founders, which is why for years I’ve spoken publicly about “ the co-founder mythology.” ” Of course we all go into businesses expecting to be aligned with our co-founders but over time life changes.
|
|
This is going to be BIG.
NOVEMBER 1, 2016
Yesterday, I met with a founder with an interesting model who was raising $400k to bring the finishing touches to her product to make it customer-ready. In fact, the only founder I've ever seen completely run the table for a multi-million dollar seed round based off of a Powerpoint is Chantel Waterbury of chloe + isabel. This blog post is not about debating if "enough" diverse founders get funding--whatever that might mean.
This is going to be BIG.
JUNE 5, 2016
I've heard a lot of VCs tell founders they need co-founders--and that they wouldn't look at a business at a very early stage without a co-founder. A lot of accelerators treat solo founders the same way--making it an implied requirement to participate. I don't think you can get into YC with this kind of "Godfather"-type co-founder as your partner if they're not going to be there day in and day out. but you do need a team.
Y Combinator
OCTOBER 25, 2019
He shares his experiences moonlighting as an intern at HigherMe (YC W15), playing soccer with YC founders & partners, and what drove him to start a YC company — even after being rejected. I remember John [founder of Boosted] came by and let us try out new prototypes of his board.
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 14, 2018
If you haven’t yet heard about Female Founder Office Hours it is an initiative you should be aware of whether you’re male, female or any other gender identify. Take Action You’ll see from the website that Female Founder Office Hours have several dates set.
TechStars
MARCH 20, 2019
Techstars co-founder Brad Feld and Techstars mentor Jason Mendelson—both renowned venture capitalists, partners at the Foundry Group, and authors of Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist —are again giving their FREE online course Venture Deals.
TechStars
FEBRUARY 19, 2020
A 2018 graduate of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and former participant in NYU’s Entrepreneurial Institute (Leslie eLab) LaunchPad program, Joshua is the founder of The Diversity Org. Joshua Pierce knows the impact one opportunity or one mentor can have on a young person’s trajectory.
500
OCTOBER 3, 2019
Felix Rodriguez is the founder and CEO of Back Office, a human-assisted AI platform and bookkeeping service for companies and consultants. I believe founders have superpowers. Founders Tips and Trends 500 Accelerator 500 startups accelerator 500 startups demo day Accelerator accelerator program founders seed accelerator start up accelerator startup accelerator startup founders
TechStars
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
Ever wondered what a startup founder does after their company is acquired for billions of dollars ? Isaac Saldana, Co-founder of SendGrid—which was acquired by Twilio for $3 billion in an all-stock deal in October 2018—isn’t lounging on a beach.
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 14, 2014
The funny thing about stats is that you can basically come up with a stat to justify any argument or position--and the whole female founders in tech conversation has a ton of numbers that people put out there as various types of proof and justification, or blame. I tend not to back the type of founder who thinks that code and design alone breaks down all industry barriers--which means that the average age of the founders I''ve seeded has been around 33.
This is going to be BIG.
DECEMBER 5, 2019
There are some founders who see predictions about the future as a kind of promise—and so they hesitate and get uncomfortable around the idea of insisting that X, Y, or Z will happen. It’s a more complete answer in the mind of an operationally focused founder. that same founder will give the most unequivocal, most confident “Yes!” Those founders tend to be terrific to work with on the operational side.
500
MARCH 26, 2020
Announcements Founders Venture Capital Investing 500 startups accelerator 500 startups demo dayNo one would’ve envisioned me as a venture capitalist. I was raised in rural Wyoming, far from the high stakes and deep pockets of Wall Street and Silicon Valley.
500
NOVEMBER 27, 2019
All Founders International global launch international founders singapore singapore founders Southeast Asia southeast asia startups southeast asia venture capitalWhile people may think of Singapore as a top startup city, what they may not realize is that this city-state potentially has quite a bit more to offer as a local hub when looking to scale throughout the region.
Onevest
MARCH 31, 2015
As we tell our founders at 1000 Angels , the private investor network that connects startups with investors, time management is an important component of any business, but when it comes to launching a startup it is even more critical. Founder WisdomBy Michael Whitehouse.
Y Combinator
NOVEMBER 22, 2019
James and Andrew [the co-founders of Firebase] really treated me like a peer. When I started, it was just me and the founders and they were going through the S11 batch. One of the founders put a description on HackerNews and then tweeted it.
Gust
MARCH 16, 2014
In reality, so-called “Founder’s” shares are simply common stock, issued at the time of startup incorporation, for a very low price, and normally allocated to the multiple initial players commensurate with their investment or role. Invested Interests entrepreneur founders stock startup
Dream It
OCTOBER 21, 2019
To celebrate their success, we collaborated with Slidebean to host a Fireside Chat in New York City on October 10th featuring Caya, founder of Slidebean, and Steve Barsh, Managing Partner at Dreamit. Caya: 2x startup founder.
Startup Grind
AUGUST 17, 2018
When I was a Y Combinator partner, I noticed that more and more of the batches were companies started by international founders. International founders typically have some combination of these three reasons: a) Access to capital The number one answer is access to capital.
This is going to be BIG.
MAY 27, 2014
It was a company whose product I believed in and whose founder I liked, but a firm lobbed in a term sheet at a price 33% higher than what I had offered using a very light agreement meant for a much earlier stage company. Then, I read about the idiotic comments made by a co-founder of Rap Genius. Founders. Founders. They got that way due in large part to a very public founder friendly stance. I treat all my founders equally.
500
FEBRUARY 27, 2020
We recently sat down with the founders of LA Fund, Lev Filiminov and Alex Balaban, to learn more about their inspiration for the. All Founders Growth Partnerships Programs bootcamp founders hospitality Startup Growth Startups
GAN
SEPTEMBER 11, 2019
Each week, I receive dozens of updates from startups—everything from founders I’ve just chatted with briefly, to founders I’ve mentored, to companies that have asked GAN Ventures for funding. GAN Startups founder wellness founders investing startups updates
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 25, 2014
This blog started from a series of conversations I found myself having over and over again with founders and eventually decided I should just start writing them.It The founders of DropBox, Airbnb, Uber – you name it. Obsession. The drive to succeed at all costs.
Founders Coop
MAY 14, 2019
The U.S. spends about twice what other high-income nations do on health care, but with results that are often worse than those countries achieve at much lower cost. In 2009, in a national effort to improve quality and lower costs, the Federal government launched a huge incentive program to drive the adoption of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), spending an estimated $40 billion over the past decade to implement this data-gathering technology in hospitals across the country.
This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 29, 2016
Oh, and make someone from your 25 person Moldova tech team your co-founder. Don't forget to tell all your founder friends about our ultra-pre-pre-seed program. It doesn't pay to look at it any other way--and I think too many founders focus on the investor as the problem versus their pitch or their company. Here are a few ways founders can improve their chances with an investor: 1) Make sure you actually have a viable startup idea, *before* you pitch.
Y Combinator
JUNE 25, 2019
We’re hosting group office hours and a happy hour for female founders on Friday, July 26 at the YC office in Mountain View, California. These discussions will be led by a YC partner and you’ll be joined by founders from 4-5 other companies. Female Founders YC News FeatureIf you’re in the early stages of building a company we’d love to meet you — anyone from idea stage through Series A is welcome to join.
This is going to be BIG.
OCTOBER 28, 2016
The Coveteur article featuring Andy and Bonobos encapsulated exactly how a founder worth writing about will act: ".He 4) Thank Andy Dunn for showing us the way to be one of the best storytelling founders ever. And it’s true: [FOUNDER] is wildly successful. The thing is, all [NAME WHAT'S MAYBE A BIT PLAYED OUT ABOUT YOUR COMPANY OR SECTOR] ribbing aside for a second, talking to [FOUNDER] about [COMPANY NAME] and how it revolutionized [YOUR SECTOR] is fascinating.
This is going to be BIG.
OCTOBER 1, 2014
There are studies that suggest that there are lots of perfectly fantastic female owned business that are undercapitalized because the founders aren''t seeking it--perhaps they believe the system won''t support it, perhaps it relates to perceptions of risk. Right this very moment, I''m in the process of leading investments in two companies where I had to convince a team with a female founder to take capital. Let''s get one thing straight.
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